(no subject)
This last year has been marked with so much pain and defeat. If you've kept up with my journal that would probably be so evident to you.
A part of that pain was death to self, and that is what I want to write about. For the last 6 months I've been so focused on dying to myself that I forgot the reason for it. "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it," Matthew 10:39. I was so focused on being so weak in myself that I didn't realize how much strength I have in Christ. I thought so much about Jesus' death that I lost sight of the glorious, victorious life He now lives. This is why it was hard for me to find hope in my situations. God used this to pull me so much deeper in my walk with Him and to so much more greatly grasp the price He paid for me. And then the devil used it to blind me to His victory, which has become my victory.
Now though, I am beginning to embrace my state in Christ. I am free! I am victorious over sin! I am more than a conquerer in Him! He has defeated the power of death and destruction in my life! He has paid the price so I am completely free to go! I live in truth. He has exalted me to reign with Him over all of the powers of Satan.
Reading Romans 8 today affirmed all of these truths and I want to run up and down my street right now proclaiming it all!! The truth has really set me free!
Romans 8:18, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." PRAISE GOD for that!! I feel like I've suffered so much these last few months, and to hear that even great suffering does not compare with the glory we will behold makes it all worth it.
Romans 8:31, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" I have felt so attacked and defeated by the devil...and this is also exactly what I need to remember. But this has already been proved to me in my life. That's why my heart rejoices with this truth right now!
Romans 8:35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
'For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This passage almost leaves me speechless. So many times I have thought that hardships and sin separated me from God even while being a Christian. But it can't. Not even death can separate me from my eternal Refuge. He is mine and I am His.
Even so, these are all just words without it being true in your life. I am so fulfilled right now because I have actually witnessed these statements as true in my own life. I have not merely heard, but now I have seen. Thank God, I have seen!
A part of that pain was death to self, and that is what I want to write about. For the last 6 months I've been so focused on dying to myself that I forgot the reason for it. "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it," Matthew 10:39. I was so focused on being so weak in myself that I didn't realize how much strength I have in Christ. I thought so much about Jesus' death that I lost sight of the glorious, victorious life He now lives. This is why it was hard for me to find hope in my situations. God used this to pull me so much deeper in my walk with Him and to so much more greatly grasp the price He paid for me. And then the devil used it to blind me to His victory, which has become my victory.
Now though, I am beginning to embrace my state in Christ. I am free! I am victorious over sin! I am more than a conquerer in Him! He has defeated the power of death and destruction in my life! He has paid the price so I am completely free to go! I live in truth. He has exalted me to reign with Him over all of the powers of Satan.
Reading Romans 8 today affirmed all of these truths and I want to run up and down my street right now proclaiming it all!! The truth has really set me free!
Romans 8:18, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." PRAISE GOD for that!! I feel like I've suffered so much these last few months, and to hear that even great suffering does not compare with the glory we will behold makes it all worth it.
Romans 8:31, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" I have felt so attacked and defeated by the devil...and this is also exactly what I need to remember. But this has already been proved to me in my life. That's why my heart rejoices with this truth right now!
Romans 8:35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
'For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This passage almost leaves me speechless. So many times I have thought that hardships and sin separated me from God even while being a Christian. But it can't. Not even death can separate me from my eternal Refuge. He is mine and I am His.
Even so, these are all just words without it being true in your life. I am so fulfilled right now because I have actually witnessed these statements as true in my own life. I have not merely heard, but now I have seen. Thank God, I have seen!